An Eyewitness Account of the Flour Riot in New York

February 1837

Here is one account1 of unrest in the North, from an unsympathetic
observer. It describes the actions of six thousand New Yorkers who,
before the Civil War, assaulted local flour merchants who were
hoarding flour in order to drive up prices.

There
were... speakers... who came directly to the business or the meeting,
and, in the most exciting manner, denounced the landlords, and the
holders of flour, for the prices of rents and provisions. One of
these orators, in the course of his address, after working upon the
passions of his audience until they were fitted for the work of spoil
and outrage, is reported to have expressly directed the popular
vengeance against Mr. Eli Hart, who is one of our most extensive
flour dealers on commission. "Fellow-citizens!" he
exclaimed, "Mr. Hart has now 53,000 barrels of flour in his
store; let us go and offer him eight dollars a barrel, and if he does
not take it"— here some person touched the orator on the
shoulder, and he suddenly lowered his voice, and finished his
sentence by saying, "we shall depart from him in peace."

The
hint was sufficient; and a large body of the meeting moved off in the
direction of Mr. Hart's store, in Washington, between Dey and
Courtlandt streets. The store is a very large brick building, having
three wide but strong iron doors upon the street. Being apprised of
the approach of the mob, the clerks secured the doors and windows;
but not until the middle door had been forced, and some twenty or
thirty barrels of flour or more, rolled into the street, and the
heads staved in. At this point of time Mr. Hart himself arrived on
the ground, with a posse of officers from the police. The officers
were assailed by a portion of the mob in Dey street, their staves
wrested from them, and shivered to pieces. The number of the mob not
being large at this time, the officers succeeded in entering the
store, and for a short time interrupted the work of destruction.

The
mayor next arrived at the scene of waste and riot, and attempted to
remonstrate with the infatuated multitude on the folly of their
conduct—but to no purpose; their numbers were rapidly
increasing, and his honor was assailed with missiles of all sorts at
hand, and with such fury that he was compelled to retire. Large
reinforcements of the rioters having arrived, the officers were
driven from the field, and the store carried by assault—the
first iron door torn from its hinges, being used as a battering ram
against the others. The destructives at once rushed in, and
the windows and doors of the lofts were broken open. And now again
commenced the work of destruction.

Barrels
of flour, by dozens, fifties and hundreds were tumbled into the
street from the doors, and thrown in rapid succession from the
windows, and the heads of those which did not break in falling, were
instantly staved in. Intermingled with the flour, were sacks of wheat
by the hundred, which were cast into the street, and their contents
thrown upon the pavement. About one thousand bushels of wheat, and
tour or five hundred barrels of flour, were thus wantonly and
foolishly as well as wickedly destroyed. The most active of the
destructionists were foreigners—indeed the greater part
of the assemblage was of exotic origin; but there were probably five
hundred or a thousand others, standing by and abetting their
incendiary labors.

Amidst
the falling and bursting of the barrels and sacks of wheat, numbers
of women were engaged, like the crones who strip the dead in battle,
filling the boxes and baskets with which they were provided, and
their aprons, with flour, and making off with it. One of the
destructives, a boy named James Roach, was seen upon one of the upper
window sills, throwing barrel after barrel into the street, and
crying out with every throw—"here goes flour at eight
dollars a barrel!" Early in the assault, Mr. Hart's counting
room was entered, his books and papers seized and scattered to the
winds. And herein, probably, consists his greatest loss.

Night
had now closed upon the scene, but the work of destruction did not
cease until strong bodies of police arrived, followed, soon
afterward, by detachments of troops. The store was then cleared by
justices Lownds and Bloodgood, and several of the rioters were
arrested, and dispatthed to Bridewell, under charge of Bowyer, of the
police. On his way to the prison, he and his assistants were
assailed, his coat torn from his back, and several of the prisoners
were rescued. Several more, however, were afterwards captured and
secured.

Before
the close of the proceedings at Hart's store, however, the cry of
"Meech" was raised—whereupon a detachment of the
rioters crossed over to Coenties slip, for the purpose of attacking
the establishment of Meech and Co., but the store of S. H. Herrick
and Co. coming first in their way, they commenced an attack upon
that. The windows were first smashed in with a shower of brick-bats,
and the doors immediately afterwards broken. Some twenty or thirty
barrels of flour were then rolled into the street, and the heads of
ten or a dozen knocked in.

The
numbers of the rioters engaged in this work was comparatively small
and they soon desisted from their labors—probably from an
intimation that a strong body of the police were on the way thither.
Another account is that they were induced to desist from the work of
mischief, by an assurance from the owner, that if they would spare
the flour, he would give it all to the poor today. Be this, however,
as it may, the officers were promptly on the spot, and by the aid of
the citizens who collected rapidly, the wretched rabble was
dispersed—some thirty or forty of them having been taken and
secured at the two points of action. Unfortunately, however, the
ringleaders escaped almost if not quite to a man.

From Voices of A People's History, edited by Zinn and Arnove

Footnotes

1 An
Eyewitness Account of the Flour Riot in New York (February 1837).
First printed in the Commercial Register (New York, New York),
February 14, 1837, and then in Niles' Weekly Register (Baltimore,
Maryland), 5th series, voL 1, no. 26 (February 25, 1837), pp. 433-44.